


How Fondly Loves (The Homesick Heart)- Lance

by painted_lady12



Series: How Fondly Loves (The Homesick Heart) [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Complicated Relationships, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamsharing, Eventual Romance, Friendship/Love, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Season/Series 07, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 20:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16625690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/painted_lady12/pseuds/painted_lady12
Summary: Excerpt:“Listen, Keith, the reason I called is because I really need to make sure that Lance has support right now.  For whatever reason, you being there really helped him to calm down last night. He’s supposed to have the second watch tonight while we’re sleeping.  Would you be able to stay up with him?”Sleep was a precious resource, but in their travels the time and the days and the hours of sleep had started blurring together.  Keith was frustrated that Hunk was keeping him in the dark about something, but tried to reign it in and prioritize Lance’s well-being.  “Yeah, I can do that.”





	How Fondly Loves (The Homesick Heart)- Lance

**Author's Note:**

> Long time no see, my loves<3
> 
> SO fun fact I haven't posted since September?! What a crazy couple of months! As usual with me, my life has spun out of control, so instead of panicking I decided to write an entire fic series. All five parts are written, so I'll post them up as I finish editing. As expected, creative liberties are taken but we won't steer too far off course.
> 
> The paladins are on their way home after the battle with Lotor, and for some of them it's bringing up bad memories and old wounds. 
> 
> Each human will tell a chapter about another, and over the course of the five chapters the five humans returning to Earth will start to come to terms with what returning to Earth means to them.
> 
> This chapter is Lance's, told by Keith.
> 
> MUST SUBSCRIBE TO SERIES TO GET ALL FIVE THEY ARE GOING TO BE TAGGED AND RATED INDIVIDUALLY
> 
> Title from a poem by John Imlah
> 
> Mind the tags. If this series makes you feel some type of way, please reach out to a loved one and/or medical professional. Your safety is always the most important thing <3 This fic will be here when you're ready to come back
> 
> As usual, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender

 

 

It was always a dream, one that reached into his core and wrenched away his comfort.  

 

Lance sat up, hands shaking as he fumbled for his communicator.  Bright blue eyes struggled to focus on the world around him, struggled to push a well-manicured hand through perfectly tousled hair.

 

The memories from the dream rang through him like the toll of a bell, vibrating him out of bed.  His fingers fumbled on the communication device before he was finally able to say into it, “Hunk?  Are you awake?”

 

The static answered him with a resounding “no”.  

 

“Is anyone awake?”

 

They had taken to sleeping in intervals, and normally at least one person in the rotation was awake at any one time.

 

“Lance, it’s me,” Keith’s deep voice reached out across the vacuum of space to help soothe him, if only a little bit.  “Are you okay?”

 

_Are you okay?_

 

The question was expected, and the answer was practiced, “Yeah, I just could really use a friend right now.”

 

There was silence for a moment, then some fumbling on the other line.  “Cosmo is going to bring me over.”

 

Before Keith was teleported into Lance’s lion, there was a break.  It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, or a few days, or some undefined length of time that stretched like too much taffy on metal rollers and it just kept expanding.  They say that there is an infinity of numbers that expands out from between just 0 and 1, which means that there is an infinite amount of time between 0 and 1 minute. Lance had to agree with whoever theorized this; he could feel each of the numbers take their time as they pressed his patience.

 

Then, an infinity and one later, Keith appeared in a bright pop of light.  He was dressed in comfortable clothes, sweats and a big sweatshirt falling liberally around his tall but lanky features.

 

When Keith arrived, his purple eyes widened at the sight before him.  Lance was curled up on the floor across the room from his bed, hands shaking as he tried to fiddle with a control panel behind the lighting fixture.

 

Lance didn’t even remember unlatching the panel and fiddling with the plastic-sheathed wires.

 

When he turned, Keith was watching Lance with what was a measured expression.

 

“Hey,” Keith’s voice was dripping with control and sympathy, and Lance immediately recoiled.  Lance didn’t want someone to feel bad for him. He didn’t want pity or anger, he just… didn’t want to be alone.

 

“Hey,” Lance finally let the wires fall, assuming their original kinky positions as Lance closed the panel again.

 

The buzzing of the room started to grow louder between them, awkwardness blooming as Keith and Lance struggled to form the first words.

 

With a tentative step forward, Keith opened his mouth to say something, but the movement caused a reflective reaction from Lance, who shrank back against the wall.  Stunned, Keith froze up. His body ran through what he could do next, but he wasn’t sure what would help. Should he back up? Should he come forward and give Lance support?  The indecisiveness held him hostage as he tried to search Lance’s face for answers.

 

Lance’s face was incredibly blank, almost forcibly void of emotions altogether.  His blue eyes that were normally electrifying in their intensity had mellowed to a distant, sky blue.  His mouth was pulled tightly in a straight line; almost a grimace but without the same level of anger.

 

Keith had always thought of Lance as someone full of life, but in this moment, with the way that Lance looked… it was jarring.  Keith wondered if this was the same man who waxed poetic about how forlorn he was at forgetting his favorite shampoo on the castle before it blew.  He wondered if this was the same man that picked up the mantle of the intuitive and fiery right hand man, a mantle that Keith himself had abandoned.

 

The black paladin pulled whatever was left of his red paladin impulsiveness from the depths of his person and made the leap.

 

“What’s gotten you so shaken up?”

 

The question was a taut wire between them, and Lance’s eyes rounded in fear, then he looked away, sky blue eyes cast a thousand miles from Keith’s searching gaze.

 

After what could only be described as another wait defined in infinities, Lance’s small voice asked, “Did you know that my dad taught all of us how to surf?”

 

The answer (in the form of a question) was not at all what Keith was expecting, and he found himself moving tentatively closer to Lance, lowering himself to the floor three feet from his huddled form.  “No, you don’t talk about your family much.”

 

Laughing hollowly, Lance fingers started tapping a tattoo into the metal underneath him.  “That’s because I can’t stop bragging about them. My siblings are all the best.”

 

The sentence hung and Keith caught it haphazardly.  “What about your parents?”

 

It was as quick as a wink, the mask passing over Lance’s face, sky blue eyes focusing and smile returning, his usual charm starting to emanate from him.  “My parents are awesome. They weren’t perfect, but they loved us, you know? They did everything for us.”

 

Something was missing there, but Keith wasn’t a therapist.  He didn’t know the right buttons and switches to play around with in order to help Lance get to the point that he could share what was on his mind.

 

Then Lance avoided his eyes again, continuing his original story, “It was a right of passage with my siblings.  When each of us turned eight my dad would take us out to learn how to surf. He’d dedicate the whole day to it, take off from work and everything.  By the end of it he was always burned to a crisp and dead tired, but the day I learned how to surf was one of the best of my life. We would laugh and connect and there was something so comforting about working towards something together.”

 

Keith ran through what he thought the nightmare could have been based off this story, the possibilities whizzing around his head: perhaps Lance had almost drowned?  Perhaps Lance is afraid that his family, or specifically his father, wasn’t safe? As far as Keith could tell, the other paladin hadn’t given any indication of what had woken him and drained him of life.

 

“Do you miss him?”

 

A tired and sad smile spread across his face.  “Yeah, of course I do.”

 

They sat looking at their feet without speaking for a short while, until Lance asked, “Can you stay up with me for a while?”

 

Keith was rough around the edges.  He was impulsive, but consistent. Usually he wasn’t praised for his touchy-feely nature.  In fact, most would define him as a standard “hot and cold” friend.

 

However, in that moment Keith didn’t fall back onto his old habits.  Instead, he dug around in his small pack he kept around his waist, pulling out a deck of cards.

 

Without speaking much, the two paladins played through a few card games they remembered from the Garrison.  Translating the rules onto alien numbers was a challenge, but it kept the two of them occupied.

 

After a while, a voice came over the communicator.  It was Hunk’s reassuring voice, heavy with sleep. “Hey Keith, I’m ready to take over your watch.  You can go to sleep.”

 

Lance looked up and for a brief second Keith could see it, the wounded look that Lance had tucked neatly away time and time again in favor of a bright smile and a bad joke.

 

The paladins split the overnight shift, and it was Keith and Hunk tonight.  Tomorrow it would be Lance and Shiro. Keith wondered if Lance would be okay tomorrow.  He wondered if he would be able to get back to sleep.

 

“I don’t have to go,” he stammered, and Lance smiled and winked.  

 

“No worries, _el capitan_ .   _Buenos noches,_ ” the red paladin yawned and stood, a little wobbly before stretching himself out.  “I’ll be fine. I’m going to try to sleep again. Thanks for entertaining me.”

Carefully, Keith got up and whistled for Cosmo.  Lance had already disappeared into his sleeping quarters in the red lion, and Keith felt like his previously firmly held opinions on the retreating man were, perhaps, less sturdy than he thought.

  


***

  


That night, Keith dreamed in shades of yellow and orange, the scenes livid as they painted across his psyche.

 

They were stop-motion, overlaid with voices that were all just different tones that Keith used.  A faceless person was trembling above literal spilled milk, spreading out in front of him and towards another faceless creature, who was puffed up in anger.

 

Eventually Keith was able to riddle out that it was a monster and a boy.

 

The scene changed, and the boy had fallen onto the tile floor, the colors starting to blend together, and the monster’s hand was painted scarlet, almost perfectly alike to blood.  The boy’s face had a twin scarlet mark on it.

  


***

  


The next day as the paladins continued their travels through space, Keith got a private call from Hunk.

 

“Hey man,” the black paladin smiled.  Hunk was a safe person. He was steadfastly loyal and one of the smartest men Keith had ever met.  

 

Hunk waved cheerfully, then twiddled his thumbs.  “Hey, so, you’re alone in there, right?”

 

Furrowing his brow, Keith glanced at the beautiful animal asleep at his feet.  “Just me and a sleeping wolf.”

 

Nodding, Hunk opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

 

“I wanted to talk to you about Lance.”

 

Keith wondered briefly if they should talk face to face, but if both of their cockpits were empty it would be just as private as if they were together.  “He seemed shaken up last night.”

 

The other man laughed like it had escaped in a mad fit, but quickly controlled himself and coughed, blushing.  “Yeah, you could say that.”

 

Altogether, Keith was not liking the way this conversation was going.

 

“He was talking about his dad,” Keith said slowly, and at that Hunk’s eyes widened into saucers, mouth dropping open in surprise.  

 

“He was... “ Hunk took a deep breath and said instead, “what was he saying?”

 

“He was talking about his dad teaching him how to surf.”

 

Hunk’s mouth pulled into a thin line, and then he seemed to deflate.  “Yeah, he would talk about that. It’s one of his best memories from earth.”

 

There was something Keith was missing, and he didn’t like it.

 

“What’s up with his dad?  Is something wrong there? Did they not get along?”

 

“I… no, they were… Lance was very close with his family.”

 

_Was._

 

“Listen, Keith, the reason I called is because I really need to make sure that Lance has support right now.  For whatever reason, you being there really helped him to calm down last night. He’s supposed to have the second watch tonight while we’re sleeping.  Would you be able to stay up with him?”

 

Sleep was a precious resource, but in their travels the time and the days and the hours of sleep had started blurring together.  Keith was frustrated that Hunk was keeping him in the dark about something, but tried to reign it in and prioritize Lance’s wellbeing.  “Yeah, I can do that.”

  


***

  


That night, at the shift change, Keith teleported over into the red lion’s living quarters.  Lance was already up, lanky body spread out across the minimalist couch cushions, flipping through a graphic novel.

 

Keith cocked his head to the side.  “Where did you get that?”

 

Lance peered at Keith from his horizontal position, essentially reading and staring at Keith upside down.

 

“I found a whole box of catalogued earth artifacts when we were working with Lotor.  He thought I might like something from home. They aren’t all complete series, but it’s better than nothing.”

 

“I didn’t know you were into that stuff,” Keith knelt down where the box was on the floor, organized alphabetically by series and then individually ordered to fit the series in question.  It was neat and clean, the way that Lance liked to keep things. When the world didn’t make sense to Lance, he organized it. It was a quirk that Keith had picked up on in the time since they’d all come together, something that Keith couldn’t wrap his head around.

 

“It’s from earth.  They talk about pizza and famous celebrities and… it’s just nice to see a little chunk of home.”

 

Swallowing, Keith carefully broached, “Did your dad like graphic novels?”

 

Bright blue eyes lit up, quickly spinning from upside down to right side up to grin at Keith.  “Hell yeah he did. He was an artist, actually. He did graphic design for videogames, and sometimes worked on graphic novels, too.  I had so much cool stuff from people that he’s worked with over time.”

 

Keith was not expecting that, and continued to thumb through the selection.

 

“I was never good at art, but he always encouraged me to follow my own dreams.  He was the one that really encouraged me to apply for the Garrison. I never would have made it this far without him.”

 

Sensing that the topic was petering out, Keith grabbed the coolest looking novel from the box.  “Mind if I join you for a while?”

 

Suspicion passed over his features before Lance shook his head and smiled tightly.  “Yeah, sure.”

 

They passed the rest of the time reading.  Neither of them caught it, but they would oftentimes look up to see if the other was still intent on their task.  They would miss each other by half seconds, and then they would then get lost between the pages.

 

When Lance’s shift was up, and Keith went to stand, the other paladin bit his lip and asked, “do you want to borrow the series?”

 

Looking down at the book, he then placed it carefully back in the box.  Keith swallowed, and said, “No, I think I’ll leave it here. If I want to read it, I’ll just come by.”

 

_I’ll just come by._

  


***

  


The dream began in a ball pit.

 

Which, for Keith, was extremely out of the norm.  Normally his dreams were full of Galra soldiers and his early foster homes, and none of them ever took him to an indoor playgrounds like this.  They were scarce in his memories.

 

Again, everyone was faceless, but he could generally tell if someone was a child based off whether they were flopping around in the ball pit or gossiping and giggling on the outskirts.  the colors were all variants on orange or yellow, setting Keith on edge immediately. The colors were too loud, the scene was too bright...

 

One child stuck out, less fuzzy and more focused than the others.  

 

One of the parents came over to the ball pit and called a name that disappeared between the cracks.  The child Keith was focused on dove back under the balls in the pit, laughing and joking around with the other kids.

 

When he swung by the entrance, a clawed hand reached out and snatched the child from the ball pit, lowering the child onto the ground.  Tears sprung to where his eyes should be, falling down his empty expanse of face and making Keith get extremely uncomfortable.

 

The child was rubbing his shoulder, muttering to the adult in Keith’s voice: “that hurt a lot.”

 

Keith’s voice responded from the adult, “Then you shouldn’t have disobeyed me.”

 

They left, and Keith went to follow them but the scene changed in a series of flashing lights, like the slides on a projector skipping around until it found the right one.  They were in a driveway now, no street name or number discernible.

 

The adult in the car with the child was sitting in it quietly, waiting for something.  

 

That was when the monster emerged from the house.  He was moving quickly, advancing on the car fast enough to make Keith’s heart hammer in his chest.  That’s the way hunters move in on prey, he thought dizzily.

 

The oranges and yellows of the scene started to darken, like Keith had pulled on thick-lensed sunglasses to view the scene.

 

The monster wrenched open the door and grabbed for the child’s arm.  He resisted, twisting in his grip, but the monster just screamed and tugged harder, “You ungrateful little shit how could you disrespect your mother like that in public?  She asked you to do one little thing and you couldn’t even do that? How dare you embarrass us.”

 

The adult in the driver seat was still sitting, gripping the steering wheel and ignoring the situation completely.

 

They reached the house, and the scene clicked and shuttered until Keith was in their living room.

 

The child finally pulled away, and started sprinting for the open bathroom door.  The monster followed him, but the child got to it and almost managed to completely pull it closed before the monster stuck his hand in the door.

 

“You hurt me!” the monster yowled, trying to push the door open.  The child was sobbing and trying to keep it closed, and managed to push it enough that the lock clicked and the monster kicked the offending barrier.

 

There was a scarlet hole in the wooden door.

  


***

  


Two nights later, a calm voice came over the communicator during Keith’s shift.

 

“Want to swing by and read with me?  I can’t sleep.”

 

Keith knew that that was code for “I need support”, but Lance hadn’t been able to call it that since the first time he asked for help from the black paladin.

 

So, he had Cosmo teleport him over, and they settled into his sitting area.  About twenty minutes in Keith got up and walked over to a set of cabinets that Lance never touches.

 

“Oh, I don’t…” but was cut off with surprise when Keith popped one of them open and ruffled around in there, coming out with two bags of alien candy.  Lance whistled, shaking his head and smiling brightly as he said, “I stand corrected. I forgot who used to pilot this lion.”

 

Tossing one of the bright neon bags over to Lance, they settled back in and continued to read, occupying the same space without talking much at all.

 

At some point, Lance said, “Did you ever have a science fair project?”

 

Looking up, Keith thought back to all of his foster homes.  It was rare that he was in a school for particularly long ever, let alone one that he would participate in extracurriculars for.  Keith remembered always being pulled out of the classes with lab components because the school didn’t trust him with access to dangerous chemicals and items.

 

When he didn’t answer, Lance said, “I’m assuming that’s a no,” to which Keith shrugged, trying not to let Lance’s dismissive tone bother him.  “My sister and I would always plan these crazy complicated displays. One year we did the solar system, and put all of the planets on motorized hula hoops.  It was designed that the person who was viewing it would step into the center and they would be the sun, and the planets would rotate around them. My dad held onto the contraption for hours.  He performed emergency maintenance when it started to smoke partway through the night and managed to get it working before the judges got there. He took Veronica and I out for ice cream afterwards.   I think that was when both of us started to realize where we wanted to go with our lives, you know? The Galaxy Garrison was for us.”

 

Keith didn’t have science fairs, or parents to foster his creativity or drive him to succeed.  All he had was Shiro, and Shiro disappeared on him.

 

“Your dad seems like a great guy,” Keith said warily, trying his best not to let the bitterness he felt overtake him or bleed into his tone.

 

“Yeah, he was.  I can’t wait to see him.”

 

That night when Keith left, just after Cosmo teleported him away, Lance felt himself crumple in a ball, knowing that he needed to try to sleep.

 

Instead he stared at the wall and wished that Keith would come back.

  


***

  


That night, Keith dreamed in shades of fire again.

 

This time the monster was pulling the child by their hair into a bedroom and throwing him into the wall, screaming and yelling in the tiny child’s face.  This time the red was splattering from the monster’s mouth all over the child’s body, it spreading like an infection over his featureless form.

 

Terrible words were being flung around like nothing.  Words like “entitled” and “idiot son” and “hate” and “failure” were all swirling and the child in the dream was shaking by the end of it.  Keith hated that in these dreams, all of the voices were his own.

 

“I’m not a failure!” the child insisted in Keith’s voice, and the monster just screamed again.

  


***

  


Keith stood outside of Lance’s bedroom door.  He’d chickened out and had Cosmo teleport him outside of the chambers instead of just going directly in like he’d originally planned.

 

Coran was fast asleep at the controls of black as Keith snuck in anyway and started poking Lance’s face.

 

Lance startled awake as Keith kneeled next to him, looking up into Lance’s eyes.

 

“Bad dream?” Keith asked softly, and Lance melted at the concern, the two of them falling into an emotional whirlpool and hugging each other closely.

 

“Don’t leave,” Lance’s whisper was almost scandalous, and Keith smiled good-naturedly.  

 

“Let me get out the extra bed.”

 

Those words were wrong, because Lance’s smile dropped.  “Oh, alright.”

 

Keith slept right near Lance, so that if the dream started up again they could work through it together.

  


***

  


This time, the monster was standing before two children.

 

This time, the voices weren’t Keith’s.  The voices were unfamiliar, in fact, and Keith struggled to piece together the argument before he realized that it was in Spanish.

 

He didn’t know what was being yelled exactly, but just knew that the monster was about to hit the young girl.  The young boy pushed her out of the way and launched at the monster.

 

It was the first time that the boy had fought back.

 

This time, the monster had blue handprints over his chest as the boy tried to hold him back as the little girl scrambled away.

 

For a second, Keith was giddy.  The child had finally fought back!  The fire colors of the dream started to shift to a deeper purple the more that the child fought, until…

 

...until…

 

...until the monster brought his talons down and there was a snapping sound as the boy’s arm was wrenched and the boy was thrown away.

 

Keith felt sick.

 

The Spanish was going on faster now.  There were more people. The fire colors were vibrating and thickening, and now the little boy’s arm was bleeding red from a compound fracture and…

 

...and Keith sat up in bed and launched over to Lance, who was shaking and screaming, and leveraged him to sitting up, Keith’s arms under his arms and his legs bracketing Lance in.

 

“Lance, wake up!  It’s okay…”

 

When Lance’s blue eyes flung open, tears immediately started flowing down and Keith switched his grip from holding Lance up to hugging him from behind.

 

There was silence for a minute or two before Lance said quietly, “My father was a good guy.  He was. He… he cooked for local shelters and volunteered to help build housing for the homeless and… he… he loved us.”

 

Keith felt his heart break in his chest.  “Lance…”

 

“He did.  He loved us,” Lance’s voice was growing small as he started to collapse in Keith’s arms.  “He was a good father.”

 

“Shhh…” Keith started rubbing Lance’s chest awkwardly to soothe him, the two of them wrapped up tight in the red lion.

 

After a few moments Keith let Lance go, but didn’t get off the bed.  They just sat near each other quietly, both of them digging to try to find the right words.

 

“It’s okay to love him, you know,” Keith’s voice was gentle and tentative, “I loved my father.  He was foolhardy and would be out saving other people’s families from fires while I was left alone at home.  He didn’t cook much and he didn’t talk much, either. He sucked in a lot of ways, but he was still my father.  I loved him.”

 

Keith felt a hand grasp his tightly as Lance stared anywhere but at Keith himself.

 

“I just… he did so much for me.  He… I never would have made it into the Garrison without his support.  He taught me how to play soccer and made the best empanadas…”

 

Uncertain how to proceed, Keith tried squeezing Lance’s hand reassuringly.  Lance responded by leaning into Keith’s shoulder, breath tickling at his neck.  Keith stiffened up immediately, the pose far more intimate than he was expecting.

 

He tried to salvage the conversation.  “It’s okay to be afraid, but I won’t let him touch you, Lance.  Plus, you’re a paladin of Voltron. I’d like to see him try to get one over on you.”

 

The black paladin felt a smile grow against his shoulder.  “You sound so confident in my abilities.”

 

The breath on Keith’s neck was still distracting, and he stuttered, “I… you know we are all talented and skilled and that makes us all useful.  Voltron wouldn’t have picked us if we weren’t strong and capable.”

 

He knew he was babbling.  He knew that Lance didn’t mean to make Keith react the way he was.  Keith knew that Lance wasn’t out of the woods yet, and would need support.

 

“I’m excited to see him but… scared.  It’s easier with the Galra. I can hate them all,” Lance swallowed and squeezed Keith’s hand harder.  “I can’t hate my father no matter how much I try.”

 

They sat alone in the cockpit for a little while until the lights came on signaling for everyone to get up.

 

The two of them sat in Lance’s bed a little longer until Cosmo disappeared to go help Hunk deliver breakfast and Keith turned towards Lance’s head on his shoulder, his lips brushing the top of his head.

 

Keith colored.  He hadn’t meant to do that, but Lance had hummed in response, so tentatively Keith pressed his closed lips to Lance’s forehead, who then nuzzled into Keith’s side.

 

 _Quiznak_ Keith was so screwed.

  


***

  


Later that afternoon Shiro and Keith were playing a card game in the black lion while listening to an odd radio broadcast that they had picked up on.  It was mostly just gibberish, but every once and awhile a guitar sound would come on and the short jingle was quite catchy.

 

“Hunk told me that you were helping Lance out with nightmares,” Shiro prodded gently, and Keith looked up at him in confusion.  The older man shrugged. “It seems to be a problem going around, lately.”

 

There was something implied there, and Keith quickly picked up a card from the pile, sighing at his useless hand.  “I haven’t had any problems, but the red lion keeps connecting my dreams to Lance’s. I think it’s trying to get him to open up to someone.”

 

Shiro nodded, placing a few cards down in quick succession before picking up a few as well.  “I know my nightmares have been hell. What about you? Nightmares?”

 

The question threw Keith off.  “Wait, why?”

 

The older man immediately flushed, eyes widening defensively, “Whoa, chill Keith.  I know we all have complicated feelings about going home. I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.  We’re definitely going back to the Galaxy Garrison when we land, and…”

 

“...and what, Shiro?  What are you trying to ask me?” Keith spit out the words in frustration.

 

“Maybe Lance isn’t the only one who should open up.”

 

An image, then, of rough hands sliding up his arm.  Keith shivered and played three cards from his hand, mind suddenly overwhelmed with images of…

 

“... especially if you’re going to have to see Captain James again.”

 

The anger rushed out of Keith in a torrent, and he threw his cards down and jumped out of his chair.  “What the hell, Shiro? James was an asshole to me. That’s not anything _traumatic_.  Lance… what Lance is going through is different.”

 

There was sad understanding in Shiro’s eyes.  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

 

The one-armed man quickly started to clean up the game, and with a bowling ball weighing down on his chest Keith quickly helped.  He wasn’t going to make Shiro take care of it by himself, no matter how strong the urge was to run away from this.

 

He was tired of running away from his past and his pain.

 

The little guitar jingle played again on the radio.

 

Shiro flicked it off.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time: Pidge's, as told by Lance. If you notice, the storyteller will shift one to the right- so this chapter was about Lance, so the next chapter will be told by Lance, and so on and so forth. 
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics! I got tons! Hop on over to my [page](https://archiveofourown.org/users/painted_lady12/works).


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